Thermal coal, coking coal imports dip 31% to 37 million tonnes in April to July

The import of thermal and coking coal at India's 12 major ports has fallen 31 per cent to 36.7 million tonnes (MT) between April and July 2020 over the same period a year ago, according to the Indian Ports' Association (IPA).

It is for the fourth straight month that coal volumes have declined at this 12 major ports that are controlled by the Centre.

The import of thermal coal declined by 30 per cent  to 23.19 MT, and coking coal shipment dropped 32.26 per cent to 13.51 MT in the same period.

Earlier, these 12 ports had handled 33.11 MT of thermal coal and 13.51 of coking coal from April to July period of the previous financial year.

However, thermal and coking coal handling saw a decline of 30.83 per cent at 36.7 MT, this year, as per the IPA data.

Thermal coal is the mainstay of India's energy programme as 70 per cent of power generation is dependent on the dry fuel. Whereas, coking coal is used mainly for steel making.

India is the third-largest producer of coal after China and the US, and has 299 billion tonnes of resources and 123 billion tonnes of proven reserves, which may last for over 100 years.

These 12 major ports had handled 705 MT of cargo in the last financial year. These ports had together handled 236.01 MT of cargo during April-July 2018-19, the ports body said.

Ports like Chennai, Cochin and Kamrajar saw their cargo volumes nosedive over 30 per cent during April-July, while JNPT and Kolkata suffered a drop of over 20 per cent.

India has 12 major ports under the control of the central government -- Deendayal (erstwhile Kandla), Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar (earlier Ennore), V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia).

These ports handle about 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic. These ports handled 705 MT of cargo last fiscal.

While Chennai port saw 32.53 per cent decline in cargo handling to 11.08 MT, Kamarajar (Ennore) port suffered a drop of 35.64 per cent to 7 MT in April-July, as per IPA data.

Cochin Port saw a dip of 32.78 per cent to 7.76 MT during the period.

Cargo handling at JNPT port slipped 27.69 per cent to 16.94 MT, while the same at Kolkata declined 26.09 per cent to 16.05 MT. Mumbai port logged a fall of 19.79 per cent to 15.85 MT.

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, sharp declines were witnessed in handling of containers and POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant) among other commodities like coal.

(With PTI inputs)

Also read: FPIs infuse Rs 28,203 crore in August; turn investor in debt segment after 5 months

Also read: Natural gas prices likely to cut to decade low of $1.9 in October